It’s been years if not decades that I last saw Gone With the Wind.  We owned it on VHS, it was a big deal when it came out because the film is so long it had to be split up over two tapes and the box for it was therefore oversized and special.  I watched it maybe once or twice back then as it was one of my Mother’s favourite films.  I also remember it being a big deal when it was shown on television as well.

The thing was though that whilst I recognised the film for the important icon it was I really wasn’t interested and hence the twenty odd years since I last saw it.

Tracey on the other hand hated the film when she was young.

But since we both have apparently matured over the years, some more than others (^_~) we thought we might check it out again.  The suggestion made easier when we found a Blu-ray copy for a reasonable price.

First thing that stuck out was that it isn’t in widescreen!!! The credits came up and there was no letterbox style screen, only an ugly box in the middle of the screen.  Is this why it was cheap?!?!

Some quick Google research confirmed though that the film was not shot in widescreen format and that any widescreen versions had whole parts of the screen cropped out.  Panic over.  Happiness that they preserved the original format.

The sound is fantastic which is fortunate because the soundtrack is so epic that it is very nearly the definition of epic.  Actually I’ve got to say that I didn’t find anything lacking in the sound department.  The visuals every once and a while seemed to drop back to standard definition which in fairness is pretty okay in my book considering this is a 70 year old movie and I can’t imagine too many good prints floating around.

Because of the clarity you can make out some of the optical effects which again doesn’t detract from the film in any way, shape or form.  Look out though when the carriages are making their way to Twelve Oaks at the start and you’ll see the overlay if that’s your idea of a good time.

What was awesome to see though is the King Kong set going up in flames and serving as the backdrop of Atlanta burning.  It was a scene I wanted to see ever since I read about it a few years back.  It’s an impressive shot and used to it’s full glory.

It’s the story and the characters that actually impressed me more than the transfer.  The story is a lot more engaging than I remember it and I admire the Scarlett character a lot more this time round.  Vivien Leigh delivers some amazing lines with such conviction and believability that even when she was being horrible you couldn’t help but still like her. I’m actually going to devote a whole post Rhett Butler because watching this again was a revelation of the impact Clark Gable’s performance on future characters, especially genre characters.

The Blu-ray copy also contains the overture music at the start of the film which plays before the credits, the only time I’ve ever encountered that before was Star Trek: The Motion Picture and that as only the remastered DVD version.  The intermission music and title play (for quite a while – no need to stop the disc to make a quick cup of tea) and finally the exit music is attached at the end which I thought was a wonderful touch.  It reminded me of the footage usually attached to the Universal monster movie Frankenstein where a guy comes out from behind the curtain and warns people with heart problems or nervous dispositions that they may wish to leave.  It’s trying to capture some of that old Hollywood theatre.

So it’s not the usual kind of film that I review but I really enjoyed it and was completely taken in by the sweeping story.

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